Officials: Man, 63, fatally shot brother with shotgun for telling him to be quiet

Chicago Police Dept.

Larry Peters

Larry Peters (Chicago Police Dept.)

Mitch SmithTribune reporter

Bleeding from a gunshot wound to his side, prosecutors said Ronald Peters crawled to the street outside his South Side home on Friday and put his hands in the air.

Larry Peters then raised a 12-gauge shotgun and shot his brother a second time, a witness told police.

Ronald Peters, 50, died a short time later. His older brother is being held without bail on a first-degree murder charge. Prosecutors say the dispute started when Ronald Peters asked his brother to be quiet.

Larry Peters, 63, was arrested about five minutes after the 3 p.m. shooting as police responded to the scene in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood.

Peters told officers they could find the shotgun in the backyard of the home he shared with his brother and niece in the 5800 block of South Shields Avenue.

The victim’s daughter was in a separate room, but she heard the incident unfold, prosecutors said. She told police that Ronald Peters asked his brother, who lived upstairs, to be quiet. After hearing that request, Larry Peters allegedly came downstairs with a shotgun, prosecutors said.

Thinking the situation had calmed, Ronald Peters, who was first identified by authorities as Ronald Peterson, later allowed his brother to enter his unit. That’s where police say the first shot was fired.

Then, as Ronald Peters fled to the porch and then to the street with blood flowing out his side, a witness saw Larry Peters steady the shotgun and shoot his brother again in the torso, prosecutors said. Ronald Peters was unarmed, prosecutors said, and neither witness heard him threaten his older brother.

Larry Peters left the shotgun in the yard and walked away from the scene, prosecutors said. Minutes later, according to a police report, Larry Peters approached an officer and said, “I just shot my brother and I want to turn myself in.”

Denied bail on Sunday by Cook County Judge Israel Desierto, Larry Peters is scheduled to be back in court on Monday